Morocco trade deficit widens by 34.4% in H1 2004

Morocco's trade deficit widened by 34.4%, in the first six months of 2004, to reach 33.37 billion DH (US$ 3.7 billion), compared to 24.8 billion DH in the same period of last year.

According to the latest statistics of the exchange office, Morocco's imports increased by 16% to reach by end June 2004 77.7 billion DH (US$ 8.6 billion), compared to 67 billion DH (US$ 7.4 billion) in Jan-June 2003.

Meanwhile, exports rose by 5.2% from 42.1 billion DH (US$ 4.6 billion) to 44.3 billion DH (US$ 4.9 billion) in the first semester of 2004.

The increase in exports concerned particularly phosphates and by-products (21.7%, from 5.44 billion DH to about 7 billion DH). As a result, the share of phosphates and by-products accounts for 15.6% of Morocco's total exports.

The exchange office explains that crude oil imports almost doubled from 3.2 billion DH (US$ 355 million) to 6.2 billion DH (US$ 688.8 million).